


dream a little bigger

by mediumbear



Category: Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic
Genre: King Vessel/Magi, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-05
Updated: 2019-02-05
Packaged: 2019-10-23 00:37:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17673080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mediumbear/pseuds/mediumbear
Summary: Hakuryuu breaks the silence, testily. “Destroying everything by hand isn’t a winning strategy.”“‘Course it ain’t,” Judal cackles, “It’s the goal!”





	dream a little bigger

A shadow creeps like a smudge of india ink washed over the palace tiles and spills down the steps to Hakuryuu’s reading room. It’s without sound but the disturbance in the magic fields is enough to distract the prince from his reading.

“Judal.” He interrupts the soft crickets and cicadas chirping in the surrounding gardens, the hot air in the open room thick with their noise, and even the insects seem to quieten to the sound of their ruler.

He doesn’t get a verbal reply, but hears something slick – the sound of lips pulled back from a readied grin. His magi thinks he’s subtle with his approach, does he? Like a boat cleaving through still, misty waters.

No, a caiman, perhaps.

As such, he mustn’t care for subtlety, only happening upon prey.

“What’re you doing?”

Hakuryuu loses his place reading the scroll (officially now, anyway; he was holding the place mentally with attention divided) and slides a marker onto the paper. “Research.”  
“ _Booooring_. You’re gonna become one of these crusty old kings in no time. ”

Judal floats over the material-littered reading-desk like a panther draped over a branch, lounging on his long spear. Of course, Hakuryuu’s used to his magi following him or floating ahead like a kite on a lazy wind, but hanging static like this, floating even indoors is…

…simply another vessel’s responsibility, he imagines.

“You’re not interested in these necessary things, so I don’t see why you bother asking.”

“It’s my business what you’re doing with all your power. What’s being cooped up in here gonna help you achieve?”

“You wouldn’t understand.”

Like a hoverfly, Judal lowers himself a foot in the air, peering over the scrolls across the desk with his lip curled childishly. It’s eerie and makes Hakuryuu wrinkle his nose in mild discomfort.

“Hmph, I could read all of this in a day, I just don’t wanna.”

“That’s exactly what I mean,” Hakuryuu sighs. “If you bothered…”

“Can’t you dream up more interesting things instead? Lay out a plan or two?”

He’s not doing to get any work done at this rate – so much for archive-diving. Hakuryuu scrapes back his chair to face Judal, best as he can with one horizontal levitating party. His magi really ought to learn something about presentation – his braid winds around him like a boa, feet scuffed in places where he knows he’s attempted walking to appease some official or another, blood on his heel where he’s taught them a lesson.

He suggests his next best idea to please him, “Strategies?”

“Bigger than that, think bigger. That’s the whole point, isn’t it?” Judal has his head tucked up on his crossed forearms.

“I can’t think of the big picture all the time, Judal, or nothing will get _done_ on the ground.”

“Think big _now_.” He’s fixated on a very distinct point, at Hakuryuu’s hand still resting atop the paper, and Hakuryuu stares at his fierce expression.

“…”

Judal’s eyes are ruby-red. He’s heard the awed epithets spoken hushed in palace corridors; the dye of the blood of many, the colour of a beating heart exposed of inconvenient ribs and flesh fitting tightly in protection, charred skin with the flicker of life losing to that of the flame. But he’s always seen them as harder than a mere flesh body.

Frighteningly durable, as the layers of stone that make the earth.

“I knew it, your claws are dulled. You’ve lost sight of it, huh? Your vision.”

“None such thing. My vision is--”

“My bad. _I meant our vision_.”

“ _Our_ vision.” Hakuryuu replies, mesmerised suddenly, like he’d stumbled over his own words. Cursed rukh -- who knew a magi, not even a vessel, could have such sway. Judal takes the opportunity to slowly touch down on the ground, the tip of the spear hitting the tile with a dead, dull thump before clattering noisily to the floor. Unwavering he drags his gaze from Hakuryuu’s hand on the paper to his face.

And he’s grinning again, that cold-blooded snarl.

“Hahah, you need a reminder after all?”

“I,” Hakuryuu realises his mouth had fallen open. “You couldn’t be _testing_ me, surely.”

“We can go through it together if you don’t remember, my little prince.” Judal teases.

“ _Don’t_ call me that.”.

“Alright! I’ll test you.”

“I don’t want that either…” Hakuryuu frowns.

“Oh, but you wanna sit cooped up in this pit and read crusty books, yeah?”

He thinks about Judal’s bloodied soles on the tiles of this ornate, purpose-built, so-called ‘pit’. His magi takes the silence as acceptance and steps closer until his shadow engulfs the desk completely, erasing any hope of getting reading done for now.

“So,” he seems to wet his palate before speaking and glances across at the tomes, “let’s say, we destroy this shitty world.”

“What of—”

“ _Listen_ , li-sten, Hakuryuu, follow along. We’re working down to the ground just like you want, starting at the top.” Once he’s satisfied that he has the floor to himself, Judal clears his throat and begins again.

“ _When_ we destroy the world. Everyone is destroyed along with it, too, right? You want to get rid of all those individuals who made us like this.”

“Every single one in Al Thamen, yes.” He replies without hesitation.

“We’ll not only kill them one by one, we’ll crush their bodies. We’ll catch their _rukh_ before it can dissipate and turn it black. Sounds pretty good, right? We’ll have plenty more power after that if I have the room for it all.”

Hakuryuu nods.

“I think crushing those bodies is something that I oughta do by hand, to be sure.”

“You don’t seem wont to do that, Judal. Your magic would take care of that easily on such a large scale.”

“Given the chance…”

Judal sighs, grinning, and shakes his head – at first Hakuryuu thinks it’s some catlike reflex, as it has his bangles jangling as he moves like a lion tossing its mane, but he notices his magi’s braid loosen at the tie.

“Their blood can’t be red like a human’s, it’s got to be dark, black, even. Imagine the ground – the whole palace covered in a black sea. Amazing, right? The next thing to top that is our goal after that. What’s next...”

“The metal vessels?”

“Of course we’ll crush those too. Dismantle them, crunch them up, mangle the djinn. Let’s do the same to them – they’re definitely not human either.”

“Surely they’d retreat just sensing your magoi…”

“Hakuryuu, think straight. A djinn’s got an ocean of flesh and blood to give up there. You’d drown in a single djinn heartbeat as he bleeds out.”

The room seems to swim with shadow, the darkness creeping up on him, but it’s only Judal’s hair bulking out his presence, his spot on the floor swathed with great waves of black. That’s right, that’s what Hakuryuu can see and his eyes don’t fail him often these days. Darkness pools and creeps up his legs, the fabric drinking it up like dye.

“Hakuryuu, _listen_. All the people who wronged us are dead, all the djinn in our way have perished. We’ve got a lot of empty husks on our hands. What next?”

“…Whatever contributed to protecting those beings.”

“The dungeons. The mountains that shaded the valley I was born in. The forests that hid their armies.” Judal’s breath is hardly warm; it draws over Hakuryuu’s face like morning mist and has him blinking in the swathes of heavy locks falling around him, curtains blocking out the light. “Let’s burn and raze them. A shattered mountain would take cities with it.”

Judal’s shadow is heavy. Hakuryuu feels his eyelids draw down as though its very weight is plunging him into--

Somewhere darker than the black that surrounds him.

Under his eyelids, there’s only red. It’s not a respite from the cool, enveloping darkness.

“If we did that…” he mumbles, as though sleeptalking.

“What?” Judal thumbs at his chin suddenly; Hakuryuu feels the nail across his lip. He grasps for reason, to find it slipping.

“I would have to redraw all of our maps.”

“We don’t need ‘em. Territories, boundary lines? Fuck it. Everything is yours, my king.”

“Don’t stop, Judal.” Hakuryuu’s breath catches, suddenly. “What’s next?”


End file.
